Sunday, March 05, 2017

Monday Quickie - Too many players

Strasburg pitched! And it went... well like a Spring Training outing. 2IP, 3K, 1H. I was interested in velocity but apparently the radar gun wasn't working so we don't actually have any specifics on that. But the news was less about the ball after it left his hand then what Stras was doing with it before. Mainly he pitched out of the stretch and suggested he could be done with the windup. Wind-ups are thought to generate more power using more of the body to create all that torque and force needed to throw a ball at the major league level. The stretch is thought to be easier on the major league arm. However the data on these beliefs is inconclusive.

What is clear is the stretch is faster and well what matters is how he feels, right? If he likes it and he pitches well then do it. That's as far as my detailed analysis will go right now.

Max Scherzer update

Bullpens haven't been a failure so he's throwing live BP on Tuesday. That means there's still a path to getting where you'd want him to be for that first rotation through but any set back and forget it. Let's see if he pitches and what they say. I'd like them to say "Looks fine. We should see him in a game by X" Anything other than that I take as a "not going to be ready". Also be clear - his finger isn't right. It's just a matter if they are going to let him progress with the ol' Mordecai grip. Right now it's all positivity on that grip working but that's to be expected.

Closer Update

Nothing to see here. They are still running out tons of arms just to see who may or may not stick. No back of the pen being set yet.

Clint Update

Clint hasn't been good. Clint hasn't played a particularly large number of games either. I'm not sure what they are doing then as he can't get any worse trade value (re: next to none) than he has now. But perhaps they don't feel any rush to deal him away or any fear he'll be grabbed if they try to outright him.Anything Else?

Talks been all about Norris since Weiters signed. He's barely played though with Solano and Lobaton getting into most of the games. He started hot so my guess is he'll be used sparingly in favorable games from here until he's gone. (And if he's not gone by OD I'll eat my ... well I did HAT and CAP. Hmmm anything else you wear on your head that's short enough to be a workable sandwich acronym?

Most of the ABs and IP are going to nobodies. They are just getting some guys major league time. I'd wait for after the first cuts to see how things like line-up and bullpen are going to shake out. Too much noise now.

Stats don't matter much but you do want guys who were hurt last year to do something to prove they aren't hurt now and Zimm... well anytime now Zimm would be nice.

16 comments:

At this point, seems like we are just looking at one open bench spot and one open bullpen spot, if Romero makes it. As long as Lind looks ok, I can't see CRob making the team. If both lefty hitting Lind and Drew are on the bench, seems like they would want another right handed hitting option... so given the love of MAT... I think we see him make the trip north again but with a short leash. Bullpen wise, Nathan could very well make the team with Glover getting stashed at AAA.

1/2ST > 0 : There's a regular pattern for these cuts but damned if I'll be bothered to take the minutes necessary to look that up. Only the last one really matters (though sometimes if you are looking for a young guy to make team he might get re-assigned early)

Chas R : MAT is a good defensive replacement and pinch-runner. He makes sense as the last man on the bench.

To be fair, Zim has barely had any plate appearances yet. Having said that, we all know full well that he tends to be a slow starter who needs a bunch of appearances in order to get into the swing of things.

Therefore, it would indeed be kind of nice if he actually did get enough plate appearances now so that he can truly be ready when the season starts in April, as opposed to May or June or July or August or September.

Zim said just a few weeks ago that he wishes that position players only had to go to spring training for 2 weeks. I think if he showed up for two weeks and started 6 games each week he'd probably be as ready as he'd ever be. The agonizing thing about the early part of ST is that you get 2 ABs a game and don't even play every day, so it could easily take 3 days to get a single game's ABs so the sample stays tiny for a really long time.

LID= Lemon Icecream Doughnut. I'm not crazy about lemon being the flavor, but the doughnut should be an acceptable substitution for, or dare I say it, improvement upon the bread-like ingredient. Better than the bitter "chocolate" wafer one gets for the sake of durability and storage.

Froggy, you and I would pull our OHSRCs immediately, sure. But have you read Svluga's The Grind like Harper always recommends? Zim's offseason workouts are not 0, and Spring Training isn't 60. And he's not an idiot--he'd ramp up sprinting and hitting in the cage to make sure he wouldn't inflame his plantar fascia or snap his whole body in half when he got to Spring Training. Give him and Werth alternating days at DH and play them 6 or 7 innings each in the field on the alternate days.

Zim is plenty fragile, but he's a professional athlete, not a blog commenter trying to play in the majors.

Do they intentionally lose the radar guns for ST games? Seems like kind of an important thing not to be working --- unless you don't want the rest of the league to know that a trade prospect doesn't have his fast ball anymore.